The road to damnation is paved with snazzy slides
December 9, 2005
Mark Pernosky
After three years as a university student, I have reached the verdict that I am being robbed of my education in many of my classes. The culprit is Microsoft’s PowerPoint. This program is everywhere: in every classroom, in every church sanctuary, in the boardrooms of every organization. However, it is PowerPoint’s vicious entry into the classroom that bothers me the most.
When I was a happy-go-lucky first-year student, I had nothing against PowerPoint. However, as time moves on and I keep spending more and more money to come to TWU, I have decided that if I am going to continue spending upwards of $20,000 a year for education, then I want a quality education. Every time PowerPoint is used in a classroom, the quality of education is seriously diminished. I am sick of hearing students wince and whine every time the professor changes slides because they could not write down every word. Instead of learning the subject at hand, I realize that I am learning how to copy manuscripts like monks in the Middle Ages.
When PowerPoint is introduced into the classroom, students are required to take more notes than if the professor used the trusty old chalkboard. Students have to write so much so fast, that the element of discussion is effectively eliminated from the classroom. Why, then, did I come to university? Supposedly, we physically come to university to interact and learn with others. A large part of the university education is learning to interact with different people who come from different viewpoints and backgrounds.
Without discussion and interaction, the only difference between buying a book from Chapters and taking a class at TWU on the same subject is the price. Chapters does not sell books costing thousands of dollars. In order to lure students back into the classroom, though, many professors have “gotten smart” and no longer put PowerPoint slides online. So, I go to class and take the notes, endure the sound of 20 pens trying to write everything down as fast as possible, and leave the classroom without having learned very much. When it comes time for exams, I open one of the many books that I have copied by hand during the semester and try to memorize as much as possible. Is this education? I don’t think so.
Education is taken out of university and replaced by consumerism; you can purchase credits and purchase a university diploma. It costs too much, though! A professor’s PowerPoint slides would not sell for $1000, but that is exactly what happens all too often. I am at the point of despair as I sell all I have along with four years of my youth in order to receive the much coveted university diploma. However, I have a secret to share (professors, pay attention!): I want to learn! I want to argue with my fellow students and talk about the subjects that we are supposedly learning about and interact with the material. I want to be re-taught how to ask questions and not just accept everything at face value because it is going to be on an exam. As Edward Tufte wrote in his article “PowerPoint is Evil” on the use of PowerPoint in education: “Students would be better off if the schools simply closed down on those days and everyone went to the Exploratorium.”
Now you go...
One Response to “The road to damnation is paved with snazzy slides”
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I definitely agree. Reading sentences and writing them down is surely neither an efficient nor sufficient learning process. One has to later read and reread over one’s scrawl and decipher what exactly it was that they were supposed to have learnt that class. An engaging discussion (guided by the professor) not only is a whole lot more interesting, but the topic and points are probably better recalled and mused on.